Where No One Has Gone Before (episode)
The Enterprise is sent a billion light years from the Milky Way Galaxy by a mysterious alien. Summary The ''Enterprise''-D has met the [[USS Fearless|USS Fearless]] in order to take on a Starfleet propulsion specialist who will perform an upgrade on the warp drive. He has already performed the upgrade on Fearless, as well as the ''Ajax''. Both these ships reported an increase in engine efficiency. Riker, however, is not convinced. He and Data have run a controlled test of the formulae that the engineer, Kosinski, has sent over, and found them to have no effect. Picard reasons that there's no harm in letting him come over and attempt the upgrade. Riker is still skeptical, so Picard sends him to meet Kosinski when he beams aboard, along with his assistant. Riker, Troi and Chief Engineer Argyle go to meet him in the transporter room. Kosinski is pompous and arrogant. He asks why the captain isn't there to meet him and demands to be taken to engineering. As he leaves, Troi comments to Riker that Kosinski is as he appears - loud and arrogant - but she can sense nothing from his assistant, not even his presence. In engineering, Riker questions Kosinski about what he is going to do and asks him to explain his formulas. At first Kosinski resists, but eventually agrees to explain himself to Riker and Argyle. Meanwhile Wesley, who is also in engineering, watches the assistant enter the formulas on a screen and suggests various changes to the inputs. When Kosinski is ready, Picard orders the Enterprise to warp 1.5. As the ship accelerates, both Kosinski and his assistant enter various information. Suddenly Kosinski shouts at the assistant, who has made an error. The Enterprise puts in a massive burst of speed. The assistant grabs his console and starts to "phase" in and out of view, noticed only by Wesley. On the bridge, La Forge tells the captain they are passing warp 10, and Data later says that their velocity is off the scale. Picard orders a full stop, and the Enterprise drops out of warp. When asks for the ship's position, La Forge replies incredulously that they have travelled 2,700,000 light years. They are now in the M-33 Galaxy, and at maximum warp it will take them over 300 years to get home. Kosinski, Riker and Argyle arrive on the bridge. Picard asks them what happened and Kosinski replies that he made "a mistake, a wonderful mistake". He is highly excited, claiming he has broken the warp barrier and that his name will go down in history. Down in engineering, Wesley is talking to the assistant. He realizes that the assistant has been performing the "upgrades" all along, and that Kosinski is just a joke. The assistant tells him he means no harm to the ship or the crew - he made a mistake. He is exhausted now, and Wes offers to get his mother, but the assistant declines. Wes then says that from looking at the warp equations he thinks time and space and thought are all the one thing. This surprises the assistant, who tells him never to say such a thing again "in a world that's not ready for it." Picard orders Kosinski to bring them home, and they return to engineering. Wes tries to tell Riker about the assistant, but he won't listen. Kosinski sets up to return them home, and as they input the equations, it becomes obvious to Kosinski that it's not working. Then Riker sees the assistant as he starts to "phase" again and then collapse across the console. On the viewscreen, galaxies and nebulae and other phenomena whiz past at high speed. Picard orders full stop. The Enterprise is now 1 billion light years from the Milky Way Galaxy. Outside the ship, clouds of cosmic dust and energy beings swim in a never-ending blue abyss. Data concludes that they must be at the edge of the known universe. Worf is at his station when he suddenly sees a targ in front of him, his childhood pet. In frustration, Picard leaves for engineering. When the turbolift doors open, Picard almost steps out into space before throwing himself back inside. The doors open again and he goes into a corridor. He meets two crewmen running from some unseen pursuer. Yar also sees it but it disappears just as quickly. Then she sees her pet cat and is back on the colony where she grew up, trying to avoid a rape gang. La Forge touches her and she snaps out of it. Picard sees an ensign in a cargo bay dancing ballet. Then he sees his dead mother, and starts to talk to her before he is interrupted by Riker. When he looks back, she's gone. They manage to get to engineering where Crusher is examining the now unconscious assistant. Riker informs Picard that it was the assistant all the time, not Kosinski. Picard orders general quarters and tells the crew that they are in a region of space where thoughts become reality, and that they must try to subdue their thoughts. The assistant is brought to sickbay where Picard tells Crusher to wake him. They must leave this place before their own thoughts cause the ship to be destroyed. The assistant wakes and tells Picard that he is a Traveler from another plane of existence. He is travelling through their galaxy, observing them, using his knowledge of propulsion to get passage on Starfleet ships. Kosinski is just his cover. He meant no harm to the Enterprise. He tells them humans shouldn't be here for a long time, until they have learned to control their thoughts. Picard asks him if he can get them home. He tells him he will try. He then asks for a private word with Picard. The others leave and the Traveler tells Picard that Wesley is the reason that he travels. He compares him to Mozart, only instead of music, Wes has, or will have, the ability to manipulate time, space and thought. He urges Picard to encourage Wes, but not to tell him or Beverly any of this. The Traveler returns to engineering and Picard makes an announcement, telling everyone to concentrate on home and on the Traveler's well being. They follow the same procedure as before: the ship jumps to warp 1.5 and the Traveler uses his powers to attempt to send them back. He starts to "phase" as before and the ship hurtles through space. Then the Traveler disappears altogether and the Enterprise finds itself back where it started. Mindful of the Traveler's advice, Picard calls Wesley to the bridge and thanks him for his part in their successful return. He then makes him an acting ensign, "for conduct in the true spirit and traditions of Starfleet." He instructs Riker to make out a duty roster for him and tells him to learn the ship and its operations from top to bottom. Then Wesley takes his place on the bridge as the Enterprise resumes course. Log Entries Captain's Log, Stardate 41263.1: We have rendezvoused with the ''USS Fearless from which a Starfleet propulsion expert and his assistant are beaming over to conduct tests on the Enterprise's warp drive engines. They have completed similiar adjustments on two other Starfleet vessels." Captain's Log, Stardate 41263.2: This will be a rather unusual log entry assuming Starfleet ever receives it. As I've already informed my crew a phenomenal surge of power during a warp speed experiment has sent our starship hurtling out of our own galaxy and past another taking us over two million, 700,000 light-years in a few minutes. Captain's Log, Stardate 41263.3: Instead of returning to our own galaxy the ''Enterprise has gone forward to a place in the universe which is uncharted and unknown. Our present position puts us at over a billion light-years from our galaxy.'' Captain's Log, Supplemental: Our position is unknown and our only chance of returning to the known universe is a dying alien who is generally humanoid but with a physiology sufficiently different from our own to create medical problems in caring for him. Captain's Log: Any time entry is meaningless. We have no choice but to repeat the same warp experiment but with one variation. A principal part of this warp formula will be the thoughts of everyone aboard the Enterprise. We have no idea exactly how this works. We understand only that the traveler makes use of this somehow. It will be most important that those aboard avoid random thoughts that might change the reality of what we're attempting to do. Captain's Log, Stardate 41263.4: For outstanding performance in the best Starfleet tradition Wesley Crusher is made acting Ensign with the duties and privileges of that rank. Memorable Quotes "Where is this place?" "Where none have gone before, sir." : - Picard and Data "While we are here, should we not investigate?" "Spoken like a ''true Starfleet Academy graduate. It is tempting, eh, Number One?" : - '''Data' and Picard Background Information *This episode marks the debut of Rob Bowman as a Trek director. He later went on to direct twelve more episodes of The Next Generation. Daniel Petrie was originally hired to direct the episode, but quit when he was approached to direct the film Coccoon: The Return. *Worf's targ is played here by a Russian wild boar named Emmy-Lou. *This story borrows many concepts from the Pocket TOS novel The Wounded Sky, also written by one of this episode's writers — Diane Duane. *The violin quartet played in this episode is Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" (aka "A Little Night Music") *When Picard meets his mother, there is also an unidentified recurring (until episode 17 "When the Bough Breaks") melody. Links and References Guest Stars *Stanley Kamel as Kosinski *Eric Menyuk as The Traveler *Herta Ware as Yvette Picard *Biff Yeager as Argyle *Charles Dayton as a crewman *Victoria Dillard as the ballerina crewman References 2064; acting ensign; ''Ajax'', USS; ballet; Bessel functions; bridge; cat; chief engineer; days; doctor; engineering; ''Enterprise-D'', USS; explorer; ''Fearless'', USS; galaxy; Yvette Gessard; Heisenberg compensator; intermix formulae; Klingon; Kosinski scale; light years; M-33 Galaxy; main computer; main engineering; Milky Way Galaxy; minutes; months; Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus; music; phase; protostar; rape gang; red alert; science vessel; Starfleet; Starfleet Command; subspace; targ;Tau Alpha C; Tau Alpha C system; transporter chief; The Traveler; Travelers; turbolift; Turkana IV; universe; "warp barrier;" warp drive; warp engine; warp field; weeks; years Other References Holodeck 4J; Personnel Transporter 3; Subspace Field Compensation; Target Acquisition Category:TNG episodes de:Der Reisende (Episode) es:Where No One Has Gone Before fr:Where No One Has Gone Before nl:Where No One Has Gone Before